Experimental Torture
by Amles80
Summary: An AU take on Katniss and Peeta's first meeting after he was rescued from the Capitol by the rebels. What did they do to him! Warning: mpreg. A prompt made me do it!


"What the hell did the Capitol do to you?"

Peeta flinched, and Haymitch put a hand on my arm - as if that was calming or reassuring in any way. What was going on? I stared at Peeta, who looked tired and worn out. His bizarrely swollen belly - I had just seen it move. It _moved_, for crying out loud! Like there was something inside of it.

"Katniss, don't shout", Peeta said. "It's not making me feel any better."

"But..." I searched for words. "But..."

"I'm pregnant", he said.

Strangely enough, I was the only one in the room who gasped. The room was spinning. How could the others be so calm?

I turned to look at them. Haymitch looked like he wanted to strangle someone. Prim and my mother looked sad and shocked, but strangely curious, and Gale and Plutarch like they were trying not to throw up.

Okay, not so calm. They had just figured it out sooner than I did. And I had seen plenty of pregnant women at home. I guess I just hadn't wanted to understand what I saw when I walked into the room. I still didn't want to believe it.

"Pregnant? How the hell is that even possible?"

I stared at Peeta – at his face, not the abnormal huge protuberance on his body – as if he had done it on purpose, as if he had all the answers, and I knew it didn't make sense; Finnick was the one who used to sleep around, why did he never get knocked up, was he on the pill?

_No, wait, I'm losing it…Men can't get pregnant!_ I tried to force my thoughts back on track.

"I don't know how the hell it is possible", Peeta replied, irritated. "I just know that they did this to me, and yes, there is a baby growing inside of me."

"But why?"

I whispered the words. It was just too strange.

Peeta shrugged and tried to sit up better in the hospital bed – I had registered that he was in it when I first entered the room, but his revelation took my mind off it. Why was he in it, were there complications?

"I don't know why", he said. "Maybe to punish me. Or you. Everybody knows that you 'lost our baby' – maybe it was precious to the Capitol because they were thinking a pregnant Mockingjay doesn't look so pretty, a pregnant Mockingjay can't fight… so they did this to me to make sure you were going to give up the fight and stay by my side. Take care of the pregnant fiancé."

"That's ridiculous", I snorted. "As if I'd ever do that."

"I tried to tell them that", Peeta replied and he smiled, briefly, like his old self again. "No, they probably did this just to show us that they _can_. They have the power to do something as insane as this – they want to scare us into submission."

"It won't work", Plutarch said. "How utterly absurd."

I nodded fervently, and then I thought about something even worse.

"But what if it's… actually not… not human…"

Who knows what they planted into his body? It moved, yes, but it could be anything, it could be a baby with red fur, silver claws and three heads and Cinna's eyes…

"Well," Peeta said, "for what it's worth, I've seen the ultrasound pictures and it looks normal to me. They talked like they just wanted to see if they could make a man have a real baby. But of course, we can't know that for sure…"

"That's why he's in the hospital", Haymitch chimed in. "He's going to be kept under constant supervision. If anything fishy happens…"

"I see." I gulped, not sure what to think, which scenario to fear the most. "So, if everything turns out to be 'normal'… you're keeping the baby?"

Peeta sighed deeply.

"I never thought I'd hear _you_ ask _me_ that." Then he chuckled, oddly enough. "Well, but the gender roles are kind of reversed here, anyway, right? I'm baking the bread and you hunt. So I can just as well have a baby and let you go to war…"

It wasn't funny. Not really. But we all laughed as if it were. Then I leaned closer to Peeta and whispered – to him or the poor creature inside of him, I wasn't sure:

"Don't worry. I'm going to kill Snow. He's going to pay for this."


End file.
